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The State Of Twitter 2012 [STATS]

Earlier today we looked at an infographic from Ignite Social Media that provided a detailed look at the state of social networking in 2012, including some interesting data about the fastest-growing platforms, which pegged Twitter right at the top of the pile.

Ignite have published all of their research that led to the creation of this visualization and it’s overwhelming in its detail. In this article we’ll take a closer look at the Twitter statistics, which includes search traffic, top countries and cities, gender and age demographics, and more.

Here are your charts.

Twitter Search Traffic

Using Google, this tracks how many searches have been done for Twitter over this period – as you can see it’s as popular as it’s ever been.

Top Countries

I’m presuming this is by density, but, even though the country has always been pro Twitter, there’s no way 100 percent of Venezuelans are using it, so I’m not really sure how this chart has been calculated. It may be similar to search, in that it’s comparing each country to the sector as a whole.

The UK has a strong showing at 6th, but the U.S. is a long way back.

Top Cities

Venezuela again! Interesting that New York ranks ahead of London, with Los Angeles close behind, suggesting the U.S. interest in Twitter may be limited to a few major cities.

Twitter’s demographic has always skewed older than other social networks, certainly that of Facebook, with the average age historically pegged around 39. I’m definitely seeing evidence of teenagers taking to the platform over the last year or two (although my son and his friends continue to have zero interest) but Twitter still feels predominately middle-aged, and this chart would support that notion.

Income

Twitter: the poor man’s social network. Not true, of course, as all those celebrity dollars add up, but it ain’t no LinkedIn.

Education

Overwhelmingly some college, which could, of course, mean first semester drop-outs. Lots of journalists and their degrees on Twitter, thought. And the presence of Professor Brian Cox ensures the IQ average is a few points above the norm.

This is a comprehensive study and it’s worth visiting Ignite’s page for data on all the social networks in their study, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, Pinterest and many, many more.